Charlie Mitchell

Yes, political hypocrisy is no shock to anyone, but it’s a shame it has become costless.

Compare and contrast: A statement from an NZ First spokesman 6 months ago about the actions of a party member and supporter, and a statement today from that same party’s leader.

A stadium full of New Zealanders living in Perth watching a struggling All Blacks side was a grim reflection of the overall vibes

A public service announcement about why you shouldn’t defame a lawyer

This is gaining traction in anti-COVID vax circles but none of them have clocked that it comes from a dataset spanning 2000-2020. The shots are so powerful they transcend time.

Savage

I have some views on this in the story, largely along the lines of 🙄 and 🧐

Yes we have confirmed it is him.

Unrelated, and not in the story, but points to anyone who can identify this candidate who attended NZ First’s members-only convention recently

Not new, but there is a striking overlap with NZ First. Many of the VFF coordinators mentioned here have joined the party’s local branches.

Behind the boring promises: the protesters trying to reshape local democracy Candidates linked to the pandemic protest movement are increasingly targeting council seats under community banners.

Communities built in opposition to the pandemic response are mobilising for local elections, often under the guise of disgruntled residents’ groups. Just one consequence of low public engagement and an often disinterested media www.thepress.co.nz/a/politics/3...

Behind the boring promises: the protesters trying to reshape local democracy Candidates linked to the pandemic protest movement are increasingly targeting council seats under community banners.

A loosely coordinated network of candidates with roots in the anti-mandate movement is contesting this year’s local elections.

Are Cantabrians living in ‘the republic of ECan’? The deputy PM is urging Environment Canterbury to pause its enforcement of consenting laws. Is this even possible? The Press fact checks David Seymour’s comments.

The deputy Prime Minister this week admonished a regional council for enforcing its rules (which it is legally required to do) on the basis that the RMA will be overhauled at some point www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

CHOTINER: You’re a bird, correct?

KIWI: That’s right.

CHOTINER: And you cannot fly?

KIWI: No, but —

CHOTINER: Well hold on. You’re telling me you’re a bird, but you walk and snuffle in the dirt like a hedgehog.

KIWI: I have vestigial wings. Evolution isn’t always —

CHOTINER: Yeah, of course.

Can’t wait to see the inevitably bizarre grievances that online culture warriors will cook up about the new Reserve Bank governor in the coming years

An interesting (and, in my view, utterly ludicrous) decision by the Media Council on reporting about a cold case www.mediacouncil.org.nz/rulings/paul...

This is why it’s good to have specialist reporters, a practice that is basically dying outside of huge outlets like the NYT.

New bridge in the red zone looks epic. While Wellingtonians squabble interminably over their awful retro bridge, Christchurch gets stuck in and builds for the future. Powerful.

FREE SPEECH IS A GIFT FROM GOD AND NO MAN* CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM YOU!

*except Donald Trump

Yes, and it’s even worse now. Seeing older people in particular try to translate this into left/right partisan politics is just painful. They will never get it.

New plan to fix only part of Christ Church Cathedral, reopen by 2030 A significant development in the mothballed cathedral saga has been revealed - but it still leaves a potentially $45 million funding gap.

A new plan for Christ Church Cathedral has been revealed, involving restoration of only part of the building and a reopening by 2030.

Remarkable image of the seat of Nepal's government on fire www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/w...

thespinoff.co.nz/politics/10-...

The way NZF operates is to gesture at these issues, while the more unsavoury types online (eg Rhys Williams) whip up the rhetoric in cruder terms, which the party benefits from. It doesn’t work if someone from the party is doing the latter.

The reactionary view on gender embodied by NZ First is very deliberately framed as a principled defence of women, so blundering in like a pre-teen like this may genuinely cause him problems.

Stuart Nash offers crude definition of what a woman is The Labour minister-turned NZ First member was asked what a woman is. His answer left Winston Peters in disbelief.

He said this during a live, on the record interview, then rang back asking for it to be taken down. Baffling on all counts. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

??? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

‘This is going to go bad for me’: Mayor admits phoning minister to decline money for Christchurch roads After the general election, Phil Mauger told then-Transport Minister Simeon Brown Christchurch didn't need government money for roads, and he didn’t want the city to be “the kid who gives you grief”.

“I said, Simeon, I don’t really want any money from the government for roads at the moment”.

www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Glinner tweet: People make a big deal of Harry Potter turning on her, but every single character in that series came from HER head. She IS Harry. She's not just Harry, she's Hermione and Ralph, and Dumbledore, and everyone else. If you're on her side, you're doing all right.

Heard Graham Linehan is in court today because of this tweet where he calls Ron Weasley "Ralph".

#bowlthebridge